1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a self cycling breast pump and more particularly pertains to automatically venting a vacuum afforded by a breast pump at a predetermined rate.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of breast pumps is known in the prior art. More specifically, breast pumps heretofore devised and utilized for the purpose of extracting milk from a human breast are known to consist basically of familiar, expected and obvious structural configurations, notwithstanding the myriad of designs encompassed by the crowded prior art which have been developed for the fulfillment of countless objectives and requirements.
By way of example, the prior art includes U.S. Pat. No. 3,782,385 to Loyd; U.S. Pat. No. 4,323,067 to Adams; U.S. Pat. No. 4,263,912 to Adams; U.S. Pat. No. 4,573,969 to Schlensog et al; U.S. Pat. No. 3,824,709 to Knapp et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,583,970 to Kirchner; U.S. Pat. No. 4,740,196 to Powell; U.S. Pat. No. 4,772,262 to Grant et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,586,612 to Dahan; U.S. Pat. No. 4,759,747 to Aida et al; U.S. Pat. No. 5,295,957 to Aida et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,071,403 to Larsson; U.S. Pat. No. 4,964,851 to Larsson; U.S. Pat. No. 4,961,726 to Richter; U.S. Pat. No. 4,929,229 to Larsson; U.S. Pat. No. 4,911,405 to Weissgerber; U.S. Pat. No. 5,542,921 to Meyers et al; U.S. Pat. No. 4,673,388 to Schlensog et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 1,847,658 to Lasker.
In this respect, the self cycling breast pump according to the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in so doing provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of automatically venting a vacuum applied by a breast pump at a predetermined rate.
Therefore, it can be appreciated that there exists a continuing need for a new and improved self cycling breast pump which can be used for automatically venting a vacuum applied by a breast pump at a predetermined rate. In this regard, the present invention substantially fulfills this need.